A view of small calibre munitions production facilities was photographed, looking southwest toward the intersection of U.S. Highway 10 and State Highway 96, at the Twin Cities Army Ammunitions Plant in Arden Hills on Wednesday January 5, 2011. (Pioneer Press: Richard Marshall)

The push to put the new home for the Minnesota Vikings in Arden Hills got another jolt of support Monday.

Citing the potential to finally make something of the nearly abandoned munitions plant that sits in its city limits, the Arden Hills City Council voted 4-0 Monday night to pursue development of an NFL stadium at the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant. Council member Ed Werner abstained, saying he didn’t have enough information to cast a vote.

The move marks the northern suburb’s first formal stance of support on what had previously been largely Ramsey County’s quest for a new stadium on the TCAAP property, a 430-acre parcel that sits near Interstate 35W and U.S. 10.

The resolution authorizes Arden Hills to begin collaborating with Ramsey County and the Vikings to determine the viability of the site as the next home for the football team.

“This could be a win-win for Arden Hills,” said council member Fran Holmes. “We could clean up the land, get infrastructure improvements, jobs for the community. … This could help the city.”

Mayor David Grant agreed, saying the stadium could provide the city’s best shot at developing the TCAAP property, which has sat nearly vacant for the past two decades as repeated efforts to redevelop it have stalled, often due to the struggling economy and costs associated with cleaning up the Superfund site.

“I am not seeing that property move and this is an opportunity to do that,” Grant said.

Council members were careful to point out that the resolution is not a green light for the project, but rather allows city officials to be involved in critical conversations that affect the city and protect the interests of residents.

“We do need a water tower out there and we don’t know what’s out there for sewer, policing, public safety things. … We need to make sure those numbers are given to Ramsey County so that all of the sudden at the end, if this thing passes, the city isn’t all of the sudden liable,” said council member Brenda Holden.

She added that even if the Vikings don’t end up moving to town, Arden Hills stands to gain from Ramsey County’s study of the property because it could use the information in talks with other potential developers.

About 30 residents showed up to hear the council discuss the issue. Several spoke out about the disruption a stadium would bring to their small city, with increased levels of traffic, noise and drunken driving.

“The area around the current Vikings stadium is not a nice area,” Evan Cordes, an Arden Hills resident, said of the Metrodome in Minneapolis. “I would not want to live there. I do not want that scene in my neighborhood.

Carol Linders said the stadium would make an area already congested with traffic worse.

“Every summer weekend, I am a prisoner in my own home as northbound travelers head to their cabins. … Would I give up 10 Sundays at another part of the year to have a similar situation? I would not,” Linders said.

Ali Siddiqui, a Shoreview resident, was one of the few who spoke in favor of the stadium.

“I think this would be a great way to bring more money to the city and also a way to keep the Vikings in Minnesota,” Siddiqui said.

Others urged the council to proceed with caution because the Vikings may only be using Arden Hills to leverage a stadium deal in Minneapolis. Current stadium options in the city include building on the Metrodome site, on adjacent downtown property and on land near Target Field.

Still, Monday’s vote continues the forward momentum for TCAAP, set off Feb. 14 when the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners voted to start negotiating with the Vikings.

Plans for the property are still in the early stages, with little known other than the fact that the Vikings are looking at using only a portion of the TCAAP property, leaving the remaining 200-plus acres open to other kinds of development, Grant said. He added that Arden Hills would not be responsible for financing the stadium.

That raises one of the big questions still looming in the stadium discussion. The Vikings are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds to get the deal done and the state Legislature has yet to weigh in.

Grant said Arden Hills will be listening closely to that conversation as it moves forward.

“Will the stadium end up here? I don’t know. All I know is that it’s being discussed and the city needs to be active and we need to be involved.”

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